Shutter
by Snow Tigra
Summary: Cameras capture reality for others to see. Camera aren't supposed to bring reality into being. But thanks to a small fox... this one does. Naruto AU.
1. Default Chapter

Shutter

A simple walk through the woods and he found the perfect spot.

When he thought about it, he never actually went looking for the perfect spot. But rather, every morning when he managed to get up enough motivation to get out of bed and grab his camera, a fit of wandering caused the perfect spot to find him. He, for one, simply wandered around town, the camera hanging around his neck with his hands shoved in his pocket as his lazy expression explored the area around him. One day he'd be walking down the street surrounded by people and the next he might be out in the woods, wandering around large stumps and downed trees he didn't feel like climbing on top of. He never looked for the perfect photo.

It just always found him.

This time it was a flower. Boring and normal, this plant had decided that a bed of moss was the perfect spot to add a little color and possibly some cheer. Half of the flower had been eaten by some animal and yet the plant was still standing, reaching for the sky, in a bed of moss that almost looked like it was threatening to swallow it at any time. There was nothing really spectacular about the scene, just more in the thoughts which filled his mind when he saw it.

Shikamaru shrugged and pulled the camera off his neck, snapping off the lense cap he began fiddling with the focus as the clouds moved over head, the shadows moving above as if adjusting the lighting for his specific photo. Finally he lifted the camera to take the picture…

But the picture had changed. Now, through the viewfinder, he found there was another occupant in the picture. While he'd been adjusting and waiting for the right light, an albino fox, quite small, had wandered into the picture and was now perched next to the flower,  
watching him with a half cocked head.

It changed the picture and Shikamaru wasn't really impressed with the fox being there, however he didn't mind how this picture looked either. He wasn't one to scoff at a photo that presented itself, so he snapped the picture and listened to the film cycle through his camera. Lowering his camera he glanced at the picture count.

And found the fox was gone. 


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

He pressed the button, waiting for the click. The apartment door was broken and had been as long as he could remember. It was one of those fairly nice apartments that sat on the edge of a college city, overlooking everything below as if looking down on the campus, mocking the fact that the people who lived in this building could only afford to because they'd graduated and found their place in life. Either that or they had parents who were rich enough to buy their students such nice rooms and give them cars to drive to school on top of that. Still, in spite of all the money and the great looks, the door never worked. Apparently the owners had other things they wanted to spend the money on.

Finally, after pressing the button three times, he heard the small click that it had worked, and he moved to pull the door open, careful to not drop the bag in his other hand as he slipped through and made his way up the stairs.

Oddly, the apartment he was headed too, belonged to the one person in the building who didn't have a wealthy parent or a full time job. The one person who just seemed to shrug at the world and walk around all the rules, because – in his own words – it was too troublesome to follow them completely. And, as usual, he found the door unlocked.

Chouji stepped in and his eyes scanned the small one room apartment. What should have been the living room looked more like a bedroom with a couch. There were the normal pieces of furniture scattered about in something that almost looked ordered, with books and videos and clothes tucked onto shelves and boxes. A TV stand sat in the corner, complete with the VCR and cables sitting out, but the TV was gone. Chouji shook his head as he set the bag on the counter, knowing that the TV was still in the closet with the other boxes of items that weren't needed so had never been unpacked.

"Hey Shikamaru! Aren't you ever going to hook up that TV?" He asked, knocking on the bedroom door. He didn't wait for a response, instead he just wandered over to the small kitchen and set the bag of photo paper on the counter, rummaging through the cupboards for something to munch on while he waited for his friend to come out of his little bat cave.

Chouji had known Shikamaru for most of his life. The two had grown up in the same neighborhood and both had become good enough friends to follow each other to college and have the desire to stay in the same relative area. Chouji was still taking classes with the wish of starting his own restaurant chain - since it was the closest job he could think of to his real dream: food taste testing - while Shikamaru had wandered his way through the standard classes with a major in photography, managing to pay his way through and out of college with the photos he took and developed himself. Even Chouji had to admit he was good, even if he could never understand how people would pay so much for a simple photograph.

The door to the converted bedroom opened, revealing the room to be filled with a dark red light, and Shikamaru wandered out into the kitchen, frowning at a photo. He didn't glance up at Chouji and instead just crossed the living room, weaving his way around the couch, to drop a couple film canisters in a bag that was nearly overflowing with the same items. Once there he stopped and just frowned at the picture.

Meanwhile Chouji found a bag of chips in the cupboard and happily opened it, munching on them quietly, even though the sound filled the silent room. "That picture that interesting?"

"Do foxes have two tails?" 

Chouji blinked. "Uhh, no. I'm not in biology or nature class, but I'm pretty sure they don't have two tails."

Shikamaru frowned more at that and walked over to the window, still looking at the picture with a puzzled expression. "What about… those frogs? The ones with extra legs because of pollution or something."

Chouji shrugged, enjoying more chips. "I bet the restaurant industry loves them because it's more for less, but I really don't see the value in two tails." Another moment of silence and Chouji shook his head, seeing that Shikamaru wasn't going to let this subject up. He set down the bag of chips and walked over to him. "Lemme see the picture."

His friend glanced up at him for the first time, then nodded and turned the photo so Chouji could see. He knew from experience that you don't touch new photos, especially not with chip grease covered hands, so Chouji just leaned forward a bit to look. Luckily the picture was quite big, so it was pretty easy to see the details. 

On the photo paper, in color, was a completely white fox, albino from head to toe, standing out in perfect contrast to the colored surroundings that filled the rest of the picture. Chouji never understood why people would pay for pictures like this but he had to always admit that Shikamaru had talent. Loads of it. Still…. He couldn't help but say the first thing that came to mind.

"Foxes are white?"

Shikamaru blinked in confusion, and then a small smile crossed his face. "Moron."

Chouji just flashed him a bright grin. Mission complete, he'd made Shikamaru stop looking so worried. "What? I've never seen a white fox before."

"It has two tails, idiot." Shikamaru tossed out the word simply as a statement, but it didn't matter. Chouji knew he didn't mean it. Instead, Shikamaru only called him an idiot or a moron when Chouji intentionally did something stupid to make Shikamaru smile or stop worrying. So in a way, perhaps, it was a compliment.

Chouji looked at the photo again and shrugged, mimicking how Shikamaru usually reacted to weird things just out of habit. Ok, he was right, it did look like it had two tails, but some animals were just strange like that. He actually wasn't surprised that some animal popped up with two tails or two more ears or even a couple extra limbs. "Maybe you can sell it to a magazine… you know, those black and white ones they have at the front of grocery isles."

"I don't sell pictures to tabloids." Shikamaru looked at the picture again, then sighed softly and dropped onto the couch which doubled as his bed. The bedroom of the apartment had been converted into a massive darkroom for his pictures and as a result he slept out in the living room. It at least explained the half-assed décor, but it also told that Shikamaru took his 'job' more seriously then anyone would have ever thought he did. Pictures came first, sleep was just a short daily hobby.

"Maybe someone dropped a virus in your camera or something."

"Chouji, viruses attack people and computers, not cameras."

"And cell phones. I heard it on the news." Chouji walked back to the counter and retrieved his bag of chips, perfectly happy to go back to eating now that he didn't need to look at the picture anymore.

"Maybe if it was a digital camera, but this isn't. Viruses and things like that can't infect normal cameras."

"And they couldn't infect computers a couple years ago. You never know."

Shikamaru seemed to consider that for a moment and finally put the picture down on the table, leaning back on his couch. Staring up at the ceiling his hands fell into an odd triangle shape that Chouji recognized as a sure sign that his friend was thinking about this and thinking real hard. It was also a sign that there really wasn't much else to say and he should probably head back to his dorm to start doing homework.

He tossed the empty bag of chips into a garbage can and wiped off his hands, then moved for the door, tossing a wave back in Shikamaru's direction. "The photo paper is on the counter, see ya later." Then he headed out the door.

Shikamaru heard the door shut, but he didn't turn his head. His mind wasn't on Chouji at the moment and he didn't need to really think about it. Chouji had known him long enough to know that he hadn't been brushed off, this was just the way Shikamaru's mind worked, one subject at a time. So instead of responding he just sat on the couch, mulling over everything in his mind.

Foxes didn't have two tails, that much was easy to tell. He remembered the area where he'd taken the picture and he knew for a fact it was a city park, surrounded by houses and a more upper-class neighborhood that stood far enough away from campus to not be bothered by the drunken college students. So any notion of pollution or a dump toxic enough to create such mutation was out of the question. He would have heard an uproar about that long before any animals had the chance to mutate.

The idea of a virus getting into his camera could also be easily ruled out. For one, such things wouldn't cause an extra limb or tail to appear in a photo. As far as he knew no such virus could add parts to a picture, though it did sound like the type of thing bored people would come up with to amuse themselves on other people's computers. Add on to that the fact that viruses traveled by way of internet connections, that also ruled out that option as his camera was a perfectly new, non digital camera he'd bought last year as a semi-graduation gift for himself. His camera dealt in real film, manual focusing and automatic winding, it certainly wasn't computer material.

So really the only option left – aside from believing there actually is a fox with two tails – was to assume there was something wrong with his camera. He doubted a flaw in the camera itself would cause such a thing, but he had experienced odd tricks with film where one picture overlaid the other when the camera failed to wind the film correctly. Such a glitch could potential cause such an illusion, but not usually with such detail. Still, it was the most realistic option available and certainly worth checking out.

Opening his eyes, Shikamaru glanced at the bag of photo paper sitting on the kitchen counter. Hadn't he asked Chouji to stop by the photo shop for him so he didn't have to? But now, as things turned out, he had to anyway. Shikamaru groaned as he stood up to gather his things.

How troublesome.

The photo shop was located downtown, which was about as downtown as any college town could get. This, of course, translated to one street packed with a mix of pawn shops, bars and night clubs that catered to the occasional wish of a college student to blow financial aid money on designer clothes and booze. It was nothing high class, though the city tried to make it appear that way with various stone sculptures that took up more sidewalk space then they were worth parked in front of the library and police station. Meanwhile the rest of the block was painted in bright mismatching signs, burnt colored buildings of brick and various groups of students huddled in front of the coffee shop which seemed to be the building which received the most amount of use. And in the back, just behind the coffee shop, dwarfed by the large playhouse converted into a half comic book store and a beauty shop, sat his destination.

Shikamaru stepped off the bus and into the building, to find it quite empty, as usual. Cameras and camera parts hung all over the room like some electronic herb garden with occasional photos attached to the walls. A desk cut the small store in half with the door to a dark room in the back and a boy sitting at the computer on the desk, playing with photos with some fancy digital photo program that probably cost more then the store itself. Another boy, with blond hair was leaning over the counter, eagerly watching the computer screen with interest, making it look like Shikamaru was interrupting the hushed conversation of a loving couple, except that they were both boys.

The boy at the computer looked up as Shikamaru's entrance caused the bell to ring.

"Chouji forget to get something?" Technically, he wasn't a boy. Technically Sasuke was a year older then Shikamaru and had already graduated college with a degree in computer graphics and was now running his father's pet photo and camera shop. He was set for life, as long as the camera shop didn't go over, but with it being the only place to get photo supplies in the city and a growing class of such students at the college there was no chance of that. Sasuke had gone to the same high school as Shikamaru and Chouji, so the specification of boy just tended to follow up in Shikamaru's mind and he just didn't really care to correct his mental term.

"No. I need to get this looked at." Shikamaru walked up to the counter, only sparing a glance at the blond boy, and set down his camera. 

Sasuke frowned at it. "It's brand new, what happened to it?"

He responded with a shrug. "My last batch of pictures came out strange. I don't want to waste another role of film just in case it was the camera."

"I'll be right back with it." And with that, Sasuke disappeared with the camera into the other back room. 

Shikamaru couldn't help the frown on his face. He'd bought the camera himself and taken quite a bit of time selecting the exact one he'd wanted with all the right settings and feel for the dials. He wasn't particularly possessive over his things, it was too troublesome, but at the same time he didn't want to have to buy a new camera any time soon and shouldn't have to, so he figured he was entitled at least to being a bit protective. It struck him for a moment that his camera disappearing into a back room to be taken apart and looked at probably wasn't the best thing in the world, but then he shrugged it off and decided to just not worry about it.

"Can I see the photo?"

It was the blond one next to Shikamaru who spoke, reminding him that he'd actually brought the photo with him of the strange fox. He couldn't remember why he'd actually brought it, now that he thought about it.

With a shrug he set it on the counter.

"A two hundred year old fox, nice."

Shikamaru raised an eyebrow in question. "Foxes don't live that long."

The blond just grinned and jumped up on the counter, sitting with his legs swinging just slightly as he picked up the picture and looked at it closely. "Yeah, but according to Japanese mythology, foxes gain a new tail every century they live. They're supposed to be fantastic creatures with powers of illusion and mischief. I like the picture. I'll buy it from you."

Shikamaru considered that, glancing at the boy. He didn't particularly believe in mythology of magic or anything like that, as the world seemed complicated enough to him even without it so he didn't really care. Considering the strangeness of the picture, Chouji was probably right and no one would want it save for those black and white tabloids, but most of those pictures were computer images anyway and somehow the idea of one of his photos being overly warped by a computer just didn't appeal to him. There was no real reason for him to keep the photo, so he simply shrugged and named a modest price.

The blond smiled in response and pulled the cash from his pocket, handing it straight to Shikamaru. "Thanks!" Then he headed out the door, pausing only to call back to Sasuke a good bye before he disappeared down the street.

Minutes passed in silence, then Sasuke came out of the backroom and handed Shikamaru the camera. "It checks out, nothing wrong that I can find. I'd say it was your film."

"Guess so." He took the camera and slid the strap back over his neck. "Thanks."

Sasuke just nodded, already back on his computer and playing with whatever images he had on the screen. And that, it seemed, was the end of that.

Shikamaru left the shop with a shrug. It was just one photo and really not worth the trouble of worrying about any more then that.

Something like that wouldn't happen again. 


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

The next day found Shikamaru dressed in a fairly nicer set of clothes then he was accustomed to wearing, a backpack hanging from one shoulder and his camera in its usual spot around his neck as he walked down the street from his apartment early in the morning. Passing cars and chatting students who'd opted out of class to hang at the coffee shop, he wove his way down the sidewalk, paying them no more heed then to make sure he didn't run into anyone. He had an appointment to make, and while he'd given himself enough time to arrive, he still wasn't the type for idle chitchat or time wasting, it just brought in more trouble then it was worth.

Due to his surprising talent and his ability to find pictures near anywhere of near anything that people wanted, Shikamaru was able to make a pretty good living by developing his own photos and selling them to local magazines and newspapers. Granted, his living expenses added up to basically nothing save for the occasional grocery store trip and camera supply along with rent, so it wasn't that hard to live on the sporadic payment schedule. It also helped that a large magazine publisher was located on the other side of town in a warehouse merged with an office building that had a good handful of publications they sent out each month. There was always something they could use his pictures for, and he was apparently cheaper then hiring their own photographer, so everyone was happy with the arrangement.

Crossing the street, he took the alley behind the bus station and picked up his steps, walking a little faster. As he stepped out of the alley he heard something crackle under his feet. Shikamaru stopped and glanced down frowning as he stepped off to the side and pulled the rather large glass shard from his shoe.

At the edge of the alley it appeared that a large group of students had decided to shatter their beer bottles, rather then tossing them in the nearby garbage can. As a result the entire end of the alleyway was covered with glass shards, and Shikamaru had made the unfortunately mistake of wandering right into it. Luckily he wore fairly thick-soled shoes and he only felt the glass break through his sole, but it never reached his foot. He tossed the large piece of green tinted glass into the garbage can next to him and walked out of the alley way, then turned to look back at it.

From where he stood now, the sun glinted off one of the building, adding a rainbow of colors to the glass before him. The angle was just right as well that you couldn't quite tell it was glass, and instead it looked like the old and cracked blacktop had worn away to reveal a lower layer made of diamonds and other semi-precious stones. Almost like a modern day dragon's stash had accidentally been unearthed by the night street cleaning crew.

Shikamaru took a few more steps to the side, watching how the light angle changed and then set his backpack down on the ground, popping off the lens cap from his camera. Silently he lined up the lens and adjusted the focus, waiting until the clouds moved overhead and there were no shadows cast over the area. He noticed that from his camera there was also a deep red tint to all the glass, but that was probably from a glare and he could filter that out while developing the picture. He snapped the photo and listened to the camera click and the film move through his camera. Then he placed the lens cap back on and hurried to his appointment.

(later)

A distinct ticking filled the room, scaring away silence with its steady beat and Shikamaru resisted the urge to fidget as he waited on the photos. He currently sat in the middle of a fancy office, laid out in dark oak and maroon velvet as highlights. Bookshelves were filled with magazines and books arranged by color and date in perfect order without a single issue out of place. The man in front of him echoed the office's severe order with a perfectly pressed suit standing only in contrast to his hair which refused to stay combed perfectly and stood up just slightly out of order, still this was hardly noticeable when he was surrounded by such order. 

He flipped through the pictures, careful to only touch the edges as Shikamaru watched, dividing them into two piles: useable and unusable. It was the same wait each week as the man looked through the pile of photos and scribbled notes in a small pad next to his other hand. In the end, when he looked up, Shikamaru noted that his 'unusable pile' was only a handful of the stack, with the majority sitting in the pile which was to be purchased. The man handed Shikamaru a hastily scribbled out sheet with information for him to pick up his check from the secretary outside.

"I actually have an offer as well," he said, when Shikamaru reached for the paper. Shikamaru blinked at him, then nodded as he sat back down.

"We have a photo shoot coming up for a special issue which will be released for the summer. I need someone who'll be willing to show up and take the pictures, and your style would fit quite well with what we have planned."

"A swimsuit issue," he said, not really sounding that interested. Shikamaru wasn't, that was plain as day. He preferred to take pictures of odd things and had never really enjoyed the assignments that resembled the fashion magazine pictures which covered the shelves this time of year. He preferred things that appeared out of the blue and presented themselves for picture taking at random, not set up photo shoots where everything was far too controlled. Still…

"There would be a substantial check involved."

Shikamaru shrugged away the urge to laugh at that, or wave it off. He didn't really care about the money since he didn't necessarily need it, though it would be nice. "I'll think about it."

"Great, here's the date and the information." The man handed him a sheet of paper which had already been printed out and finalized, complete with information for a prepayment if he agreed. 

Shikamaru blinked at the paper and did his best not to scowl in annoyance. Was he that predictable now that he knew he'd agree even before he asked? Not that it mattered. A second later he simply nodded and slipped the paper in his folder with the few unused photos, and then placed that in his bag. Giving a polite 'thank you' he exited the room, leaving his newly sold photos in the man's hands. He didn't even ask what articles or anything they'd be used for, he didn't really care that much.

A stop at the front desk to interrupt the male secretary from reading his shady book to get his check and Shikamaru was headed home. The whole meeting had taken maybe an hour and in the end he'd sold more pictures then he thought he would, so he was pretty satisfied. And now he had plans to drop off his things and spend the rest of the day wandering with his camera, seeing what he could find.

Turning his steps, he headed back for his alley short cut, which he'd taken not too long ago, only to find the alley way now blocked by two lumps of metal, which used to be called cars. Shikamaru slowly came to a stop and looked at the scene.

Two cars blocked the alley, one of fairly new design with gleaming red paint, while the other was an older piece but still new enough to crumble like aluminum foil from a head-on crash. The windows were shattered, glass spreading across the road and now surrounded by police tape to keep on lookers from getting glass in their feet and shoes. It wasn't hard to tell the police had already been here and they'd tried their best to clean up part of the mess, because there was an ambulance pulling away, and the glass on the street near one of the cars was soaked in thick red blood, glimmering like precious rubies just now unearthed.

Precious stones.

Shikamaru felt his hands grow cold and the backpack, which was slung over one shoulder, slid off his arm to thump on the ground. Suddenly the camera around his neck felt very heavy and he found himself wishing for a moment it that the strap would break so that he wouldn't have to hold it. All he could think about was the picture he'd taken not two hours ago.

Hadn't he likened it in his mind to precious stones found under the pavement? Hadn't it had a strange blood red tint when he'd taken the picture? Now that he thought about it it had looked exactly like blood covering the street and tinting the glass like that. Hadn't he…

Ridiculous.

That's what it was, ridiculous. Things like this didn't happen and he was being a fool for getting so worked up about it. It was just a car crash that happened to occur in the same alley he cut through nearly every week. It was nothing more then that, it couldn't be.

He stared at the scene a moment longer, noticing other students and businessmen and women stopping to survey the damage. It was the normal gawker's stall that occurred around any accident. Everyone just had to come over and see for themselves what had happened and what was going on.

Even the blond boy from the photo store from yesterday.

Shikamaru began to consider leaving the scene, and actually lifted the first foot to do so, when he noticed something peculiar. The blond boy from before wasn't actually looking at the glass, the blood or the poor excuse for what used to be two cars. Instead, his eyes were focused solely on Shikamaru and his camera.

Shikamaru blinked in question as he watched him back. Strange.

A siren broke his concentration as a police car rounded the corner, the loud whining shattering the stunned silence around him. He moved with the crowd which had gathered, shuffling out of the way for the car, which was followed by a tow truck to take care of the two piles of crushed metal.

Shikamaru looked up, but couldn't find the blond boy from before. Turning he shrugged and grabbed his backpack, swinging it back over one shoulder. He might as well head home, after all, what really was the point of staying and staring as they hauled everything away?

It certainly wasn't that he felt guilty or anything, that couldn't be it. Why would you feel guilty for taking a picture and not realizing that the sun glinting off the glass looked like blood? Why would that make him even partially responsible? It was just ridiculous and he was making something out of nothing.

Least… that's what he was trying to tell himself. 


End file.
